He helped her with the watering. Presently she spoke, with a quick look toward the house. "There's something I want to say." "Yes." "Something I want you to do for me." "I expect maybe I'll do it." She said nothing more for a minute, then the thing that was troubling her burst from the lips of the girl as a flame leaps out of a pent fire. "It's about that boy he has up there." She gave a hopeless little gesture toward the hills. "Sam Cullison?" "Yes." "What about him?" "He's bent on ruining him, always has been ever since he got a hold on him. I can't tell you how I know it, but I'm sure---- And now he's more set on it than ever." Curly thought he could guess why, but he wanted to make sure. "Because you are Sam's friend?" The pink flooded her cheeks. "Yes." "And because you won't be Soapy Stone's friend?" She flashed a startled look at him. "How do you know?" "Jealous, is he?" Her face, buried in the blooms she had been cutting, was of the same tint as the roses. "And so he wants to hurt you through him?" Flandrau added. "Yes. If he can drag Sam down and get him into trouble he'll pay off two grudges at once. And he will too. You'll see. He's wily as an Indian. For that matter there is Apache blood in him, folks say." "What about young Cullison? Can't he make a fight for himself?" "Oh, you know how boys are. Sam is completely under this man's influence." Her voice broke a little. "And I can't help him. I'm only a girl. He won't listen to me. Besides, Dad won't let me have anything to do with him because of the way he's acting. What Sam needs is a man friend, one just as strong and determined as Soapy but one who is good and the right sort of an influence." "Are you picking me for that responsible friend who is to be such a powerful influence for good?" Curly asked with a smile. "Yes--yes, I am." She looked up at him confidently. "Haven't you forgotten that little piece in the _Sentinel_? How does it go? An example had ought to be made of the desperadoes, and all the rest of it." "I don't care what it says. I've seen you." "So had the editor." She waved his jests aside. "Oh, well! You've done wrong. What of that? Can't I tell you are a man? And I don't care how much fun you make of me. You're good too." Curly met her on the ground of her own seriousness. "I'll tell you something, Miss Laura. Maybe you'll be glad to know that the reason I'm going to the horse ranch is to help Sam Cullison if I can." He went on to tell her the whole story of what the Cullisons had done for him. In all that he said there was not one word to suggest such a thing, but Laura London's mind jumped the gaps to a knowledge of the truth that Curly himself did not have. The young man was in love with Kate Cullison. She was sure of it. Also, she was his ally in the good cause of romance. When Curly walked back into the house, Stone laid down the paper he had been reading.